How Pencils are Made

Pencils: Industrial designers start projects with them, cowards use them to complete crosswords. And while I'd like to see specifically inside the pencil factory that makes Berol Prismacolors, this look inside one of Staedtler's factories does nicely.

Their "How we make pencils" video is surprisingly entertaining and informative: Among other things, I didn't realize pencils were made in bricks, nor painted by being shot through tubes, and the way they're sharpened en masse at the end is unexpectedly cool.

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